First meetings
by El loopy
Summary: Seymour and Audrey meet for the first time. Oneshot. Teenage Audrey and Seymour. One-sided Seymour x Audrey. Pre-musical.


First meeting

A pair of bespectacled eyes peered around the corner from the dark of the back room. Mr Mushnik was talking to someone. This was a very big deal. Mr Mushnik impressed upon him very strongly how important it was when people – _customers_ – came into his shop and how important it was that when this happened Seymour stayed out – of – sight. Seymour still had the bruises to remind him. This time though, he couldn't resist. He'd thought he heard a child's voice. Light and sweet. A girl's. He was curious. He hadn't had much opportunity to see a girl, living in a boy's home. He'd heard that they were many unpleasant things, but he was starved of the company of other children. He hadn't seen a soul but Mr Mushnik since he'd been brought here some weeks ago and he was prepared to risk a beating for it. Besides, someone with a voice like that couldn't really be unpleasant, could they?

He peeked around the corner and drew in a breath. She was so pretty-looking and delicate, like one of those flowers he'd started learning about (Yes, Mr Mushnik had told him not to touch the inventory but he was really very interested in plants). Maybe a Petunia…

He was still staring when she turned her head and saw him. He froze for a moment in fear before flashing out of sight.

Audrey's mother held her hand tightly to stop her wandering off. There was something about Mr Mushnik's shop that intrigued her daughter, which she never understood. When asked, Audrey always responded, "Its somewhere green!" with a beaming smile that baffled her parent. The man didn't seem to mind the girl much though, rather he seemed to have a soft spot for Audrey, a fact her Mother was about to exploit.

"So, he's gone," she finished and Mr Mushnik shook his head.

"And good riddance. I always told you he was no good for you!"

"That's all very well, Mr Mushnik," she said a little sourly, but with a lot of despair, "but what am I to do with Audrey? I need to work Mr Mushnik! Or we'll starve. I can't take her with me. I'd normally leave her at home but…"

"He might come back," Mushnik finished grimly.

Audrey looked up at the shop keeper and smiled. She had just noticed a boy watching her, but he had disappeared. She was intrigued.

"Can I stay here?"

Both adults looked at her in something like surprise. She was usually such a quiet little thing.

"That all depends," he murmured and crouched down to her level, "will you work for it?"

She nodded very seriously. He Mother heard the playful note in the words and knew he'd keep her daughter. She breathed a sigh of relief and retreated quickly.

"I'll leave you to it then. See you later," and she was gone.

Audrey was left a bit startled by the sudden departure of no goodbye. Just like Daddy. A little anxiety crept into her face but Mushnik headed it off.

"Now Audrey, you look like someone who can make pretty bunches of flowers."

She nodded slowly, her mind drifting back from her unhappiness a little. "Come on, I'll show you where we make them."

As they wandered through to the back there was an abrupt shuffle and a crash, followed by Mushnik's below of "Seymour!" Audrey drifted towards the noise curiously but was tugged back.

"Now don't you go distracting that boy. Seymour is new here. I am training him but he is a lazy little boy and will take any excuse not to do work. Do you understand?"

Audrey nodded solemnly. She had been warned about such boys.

She spent the rest of the day making flower arrangements and did not see the mysterious boy. At the end of the day Mr Mushnik pressed a coin into her hand and she felt its satisfying weight in her palm the whole way home.

As the years went on Audrey occasionally went back to the flower shop because she liked it. After the first few days of Daddy being gone her Mother had realised that he wasn't coming back and so left her alone when she went to work. A number of years had passed, however, before Audrey finally met 'the boy'.

The room where she did the flower arrangements was her favourite room in the whole shop. There were flowers in all their gorgeous arrays of colours, and ribbons in just as many sat in little dispensers. Glitter in its pots waited patiently to be used and she loved the fresh crinkle of the cellophane as she wrapped it around her latest creation.

On the day where she first met the elusive Seymour, Mr Mushnik had left her in order to deal with a customer, so she wandered around the room, looking at the flowers and trying to decide which to put together next. A sharp crack made her jump and she spun to see the mysterious boy hastily trying to pick up the broom he'd just dropped.

"I'm s-s-s-sorry," he mumbled, red in the face, "I didn't know…I-I'll come back later…"

He prepared to retreat but Audrey remembered what Mr Mushnik had said that time about the boy trying to avoid work and put on her best authoritative voice.

"No. It's all right. You had better come in and sweep up."

Blushing more furiously, Seymour set to work with the broom, keeping his eyes determinedly on the floor. Audrey studied him as he did so, unaware that her scrutiny was flustering him further. He didn't seem to be lazy. She watched him diligently trying to get every bit of soil and loose leaf and speck of glitter.

Seymour was feeling himself getting hotter every minute. He usually enjoyed sweeping this room. He would take his time and say hello to the flowers. He loved being around the flowers. With this girl here though he couldn't even enjoy it, especially not with her watching him so closely…he sneaked another peek to see if she still was and met her bright, inquisitive eyes. It sent such a terrified jolt through him that he stumbled and the broom knocked into a pile of flower pots. With a crash the topmost pot fell to the floor and smashed. Both teenagers froze, Audrey with surprise, first at the noise and then at the look of pure terror on Seymour's face.

"Seymour!" came the bellow. It made her jump in its suddenness and fury. "Seymour, what are you doing?"

The boy looked at her then, properly for the first time, eyes full of fear and she understood.

"It was just me, Mr Mushnik," she called back, "I've knocked over a pot. I'm sorry."

There was a breathless silence followed by a grudging, "Be more careful."

She waited a beat and then moved towards the shell-shocked boy.

"Why'd you do that?" he asked in genuine bewilderment and Audrey gave a self-conscious shrug of her shoulders.

"I'm not sure," her accent drew out the last word, more pronounced in her embarrassment, and to hide it she began to pick up the pieces of the shattered pot.

"Oh, no, no, let me do that!" Seymour begged and crouched next to her. In his haste to pick up the pot, and prevent her cleaning up, his fingers slipped.

"Ouch!" He stared at the bright red at the end of his fingers and on the edge of the broken shards of pot.

Audrey gasped, "Oh! You're hurt!" She hurried off to the corner of the room, heading back to him with bandages. Seymour watched the blood drop from his fingers. Little red dots on the linoleum. He'd have to clean it up before Mr Mushnik saw.

"Here, let me help you." Audrey sat next to him and took his hand in hers. Her skin was warm. Slowly she cleaned and bandaged the cuts.

"You're so clumsy, Seymour." She said it with a tinge of affection and he met her eyes again, bewildered.

"You know my name?"

"Sure," she smiled a little as she wrapped up his fingers. It was the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen.

"I don't know yours," he admitted quietly, "but I thought you looked so pretty the first time I saw you, I imagined you were named like one of the flowers. A Petunia or something." He broke off; flushed at saying so much.

Audrey shook her head a little. "Not really. My name's Audrey. I wish it were as pretty as the name of a flower, but no. Just plain Audrey."

Audrey. He loved the way it sounded. "It's a pretty name," he stated, "it _should_ be the name of a flower."

Audrey just laughed a little, self-deprecating.

"Oh no. Nothing like that." He was a cutie. Clumsy and awkward but a sweetheart.

He frowned at her low opinion of herself.

"I tell you what, someday I'm going to discover a new and exotic plant, and I'll name it after you. Then you _will_ have the name of a flower."

She smiled at him a little, indulgently.

"You're sweet." She got to her feet. "I need to get home. Mother will be back soon. You look after that," she nodded at his fingers. "It was nice meeting you, Seymour."

He scrambled to his feet after her.

"Yeah, you too," he waited until she was out the room before adding, "Audrey."

It was a lovely name, as lovely as her, and one day, when he was more than the boy that swept the shop floor, he would name a plant after her to prove it to her.


End file.
